GNU Hurd/ hurd/ running/ Debian GNU/Hurd

Welcome to... ... the GNU Hurd!

Debian GNU/Hurd is an effort to port the Debian distribution to the Hurd. Around 75% of Debian packages can already be run under Debian GNU/Hurd, which makes it very usable. See the Status of the Debian port for more information.

One noteable difference in this port, is that /etc/mtab -> /proc/mounts

QEMU Image

pre-installed available at https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/latest/hurd-i386/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz.

Usage:

  • Install qemu-kvm via your distribution's package manager (it might just be named qemu)
  • Download the image, unpack it, and run it:
$ wget https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/latest/hurd-i386/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz
$ tar -xz < debian-hurd.img.tar.gz
$ kvm -m 1G -drive cache=writeback,file=$(echo debian-hurd-*.img) -no-reboot -net user,hostfwd=tcp:127.0.0.1:2222-:22 -net nic,model=e1000
  • Log in as root (the root password is empty)

  • Set up a root password with passwd

  • update the system with apt update && apt upgrade

  • Log in as demo (the demo password is empty)

  • Set up a demo password with passwd

  • You can also create another non-root user with adduser <username>

  • and set the non-root user password with passwd <username>

  • and add the non-root user to the sudo group via gpasswd -a <user> sudo

  • logout via logout

Optionally you may use --curses to keep your keyboard layout. If need be modprobe kvm_amd, kvm intel and kvm to get kvm support (which is much, much faster).

Note that if you do not have a command named kvm, you can try something across the lines of:

$ qemu-system-i386 --enable-kvm -drive cche=writeback,file=$(echo debian-hurd-*.img) -net user,hostfwd=tcp:127.0.0.1:2222-:22 -net nic,model=e1000

Or, if your machine does not allow for KVM acceleration, omit --enable-kvm from the command.

Please also read the README file: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/latest/hurd-i386/README

If you have troubles extracting the image, you can use the gz version, the zip version, or even the plain version (5GiB!)

See the discussion about writeback caching.

For more detailed instructions, please see the QEMU page.

Installing

Contributing

IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-12

<braunr> hm, there is something weird
<braunr> after successfully installing (with the new installer cd), and rebooting, system init fails because fsck can't be run on /home (a separate partition)
<braunr> it can't fsck because at that point, /home is already mounted, and indeed the translator is running
<braunr> teythoon: any idea what might cause that ?
<teythoon> me ?
<teythoon> no
<braunr> ok
<braunr> ah no, actually /home isn't mounted oO
<braunr> but fsck still refuses to check it, stating that reason
<braunr> hm, /etc/mtab isn't a link to /proc/mounts here, might explain

IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-12

<braunr> yes, better with a proper symlink :)
<teythoon> good
<youpi> Mmm, what is supposed to create that symlink?
<teythoon> one debian init script did that at one time
<teythoon> i believe they dropped that
<youpi> err, but something must be creating it for newer systems
<teythoon> good point
<braunr> well, except for these small details, everything went pretty smooth
<braunr> both on ide and ahci
<youpi> it seems /etc/mtab gets created at boot
<youpi> (on Linux I mean)
<teythoon> youpi: i cannot find the init script, but i'm sure that it was there
<youpi> I can't find it either on the installed system...
<azeem> maybe pere or rleigh in #debian-hurd can help

IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-13

<braunr>   6<--60(pid1698)->dir_lookup ("var/run/mtab" 4194305 0) = 0 3 "/run/mtab"  (null)
<braunr> looks like /etc/mtab isn't actually used anymore
<teythoon> it never was on hurd
<tomodach1> braunr: well it is generated i believe from mounted filesystems
<tomodach1> if its still around there is a reason for it, like posix compatiblity perhaps?
<braunr> well the problem is that, as mentioned in pere's thread on bug-hurd, some tools now expect /var/run/mtab instead of /etc/mtab
<braunr> and since nothing currently creates this file, these tools, such as df, are lost
<braunr> they can't find the info they're looking for

IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-17

<braunr> i still don't have mtab at the proper location on darnassus
<pere> is there something missing with sysvinit on hurd?
<braunr> is that normal ?
<pere> yes.  I recommended fixing it in the hurd package. (BTS #737759)
<braunr> yes i saw but was there any action taken ?
<pere> did not check
<teythoon> i thought youpi mentioned that it is fixed in the libc and we just need to rebuild coreutils or something
<pere> yes
<braunr> oh ok
<braunr> but doesn't that mean it will use /etc/mtab ?
<pere> if I was a hurd porter, I would fix it in hurd while waiting for a fix in coreutils, just to save people for wondering about the breakage, but I am not the most patient of developers. :)

Externel